the day the music died (again)

we lost a musical icon on thursday…

…it wasn’t on tv. it didn’t make it to your news app. it wasn’t in your feed more than likely (although it was in mine several times). it was bobby barnard, my former boss, and owner of sundance records (1977-2012).

(those were the years sundance was around, not bobby)

to most of us music junkies in this area it was sacred ground. yeah, it had two previous locations on the square, but it moved out of those historic parking-deprived caves for a building left by a floundering record shop on university drive (which i believe was called turntable records, but i’m not totally sure on that) back in 1987 and never looked back. the problem with mom and pop businesses, however, is that eventually mom and pop just can’t do it anymore…and when their only kids were all four legs and furry (as in dogs, not some kind of mutant) eventually they have to fade off into the sunset.

(this is where i was gonna do a link to the bit i did the last day the shop was open but sadly all the pictures are now gone from some server swap we did so i won’t bother till i can find them and restore them, but they’re from eight years ago so that will probably be a bit)

the pic that made most of my former co-workers feeds was this one:

that’s the man – bobby barnard – doing what he does best…making a record store look killer. it’s just it wasn’t OUT record store. i mean, yeah, he is the one that made sundance look as killer as it did…but this is him decorating sig’s in houston, which looks JUST like sundance:

i will have to make a pilgrimage, if for no other reason than to honor his memory. i’m gonna try and rock nothing but sundance wear this weekend in tribute. this guy and his vision inspired both sig’s lagoon in houston and groover’s paradise in austin (both liberally decorated with sundance shrapnel) and the place also gave me my current career.

it was me working there that got me selling body jewelry through there, ultimately leading to the friendship with harold that got me my current gig of eleven years.

so thanks, bobby (and his wife nancy) – you will be missed greatly. the musical landscape of texas would not have been the same without you.